Wanderley Cardoso

Wanderley Cardoso ranked among the top acts on Jovem Guarda, placed immediately after Roberto Carlos and alongside Jerry Adriani and Erasmo Carlos, yet his output remained consistently romantic and he stood as the foremost romantic singer within the movement. Even at that stage he cut only isolated tracks with a backing group and otherwise worked with full orchestras.

At age thirteen he scored a 1959 success with Heitor Dos Prazeres’s “A Canção do Jornaleiro.” After stepping away from performance in 1962 to finish his studies and qualify as an accountant, he returned to television in 1963 with the debut single “Deu a Louca no Mundo” backed with “Rosana.” The follow-up single, Paulo Queiroz’s Portuguese adaptation of Chauby-du Pac’s “Fais Attention,” appeared as “Preste Atenção,” climbed to fifth place on the charts, and later received a Spanish-language version aimed at Latin markets. By roughly 1965 his popularity had grown sufficiently for Roberto Carlos to regard him as a direct rival among youth-oriented singers. During those years Cardoso appeared regularly on TV Rio’s Festa de Arromba, a program operating in the same orbit as Jovem Guarda. His 1965 version of Genival Melo’s “Abraça-me Forte” brought an invitation to headline the film of the same name under director Mozael Silva opposite Rosemary, yet Cardoso withdrew and Jerry Adriani stepped in before the project collapsed entirely. Also in 1965 he enjoyed strong sales with “Deus te Acompanhe” from the album Perdidamente Apaixonado, which reached fourth position. The following year he hosted Novos Nove Show on TV Excelsior, a direct competitor to Jovem Guarda, and soon received his own program, Excelsior A Go Go, which he later relinquished because of an intensive touring schedule across Brazil. That same year he starred in the biographical film O Ídolo. One of his major hits, Eliza Moreira’s “Meu Amor Brigou Comigo,” appeared on the 1966 LP Juventude e Ternura, which also contained his first recorded composition, “Meu Regresso,” written with Genival Melo. Rosemary cut another early Cardoso piece, “Que Bom Seria,” co-written with Carlos César, in the same period. In 1967, after capturing a Northeastern contest with 65,000 votes and being named “the king of the Pernambucan youth,” Cardoso gained nationwide exposure through frequent Jovem Guarda television appearances; his single “O Bom Rapaz” from the identically titled album reached number one in April, displacing Roberto Carlos’s “Namoradinha de Um Amigo Meu.” The next year brought further success with Fábio’s “Socorro, Nosso Amor Está Morrendo.” Around that time Cardoso shifted toward original material, scoring hits with “Doce de Coco” in 1968 and “Quando o Amor se Transforma em Poesia” from the 1969 album of the same name. He received the Chico Viola prize in 1968.

During the 1970s Cardoso turned away from rock and concentrated solely on romantic repertoire while touring the United States and Latin America. In 1972 he won the Festival Piriapolis in Uruguay for both Best Singer and Best Composer with “Vivo Para Ver Você Viver.” Further hits from the decade included Roberto Corrêa and John Lemos’s “Minha Namorada,” José Augusto’s “Preciso Tanto de Você,” and Chico Buarque’s “Até Pensei,” alongside occasional excursions into pop-sertanejo material. He continued recording and performing; in 1995 he joined the commemorative album 30 Anos de Jovem Guarda/Os Reis do Iê-iê-iê and its accompanying shows marking three decades of the movement.